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Buffalo Report articles 2005

 

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Robert Oscar Lopez: Democracy and college literacy for 2006: a New Year's resolution. The major problem confronting higher education today has nothing to do with money or politics or any other hot-ticket item. It is far simpler than that, far more basic than that. And, unlike most of the other problems, it can be addressed directly by every faculty member in every public or private college or university. And should be. (29 December 2005)

Steve Banko: Heroes. Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld regularly refer to the US dead in Iraq as "heroes," and they've gotten the press to adopt the same lazy nomenclature. Their choice of words is neither sentimental nor accidental:  "If the governors of this war can sell notion of universal heroism, it is easier to deny the universal fact that those serving and dying are victims. We can only celebrate heroes. We can only be 'thankful' for the death of heroes. We don’t celebrate victims. We mourn them. When we mourn them, we question the reason for their deaths. When we question the reason, we must face the truth of how we chose to go to war and the purpose for which lives are being sacrificed." (12 December 2005)

Bruce Jackson: Where did the Buffalo News go? Why hasn't the Buffalo News told you that it is killing its evening editions (costing nearly 400 jobs), that its Guild members have been working without a contract since July 31 (in what may be the region's longest-running labor dispute), and that it is closing its Southtowns and Northtowns bureaus? Why hasn't it covered the downtown casino issue as if it were a story that mattered, which it is? Why does the News maintain the worst website in the industry? What "edition" of the News is really a scam? Why are all the columnists but one so tacky, banal, and/or epidermal? Why are some artists banished forever from arts coverage? What may Warren Buffett be planning to do to us next? What would it be like if Buffalo had a newspaper that took the city and the region seriously?  (22 November 2005) 

Spectator: The View from Here. On incompetent generals, celebrity journalists, Chalabi's return, and the astonishing, miraculous, joyous increase in value of Dick Cheney's Halliburton stock since the Bush administration started awarding the firm no bid contracts. (18 November 2005)

Robert Oscar Lopez: Saving Rosa Parks from American hypocrisy. Don't be misled by the coffin and military honor guard in the Capitol Rotunda: the bad guys finally have Rosa Parks exactly where they've long wanted her, and they're using her to silence the voices she risked so much to free. "A hagiography filled with hypocrisy is slowly turning Rosa Parks into a conservative weapon against the present generation of antiracist activists, who are already being contrasted against Park’s 'unassuming' and 'modest' way of changing things." (1 November 2005)

Elaine Cassel: A Moment of Truth. Republican mouthpieces have taken to the talk shows arguing that Scooter Libby's perjury indictment is no big deal: He wasn't indicted for conspiracy, was he? Bush wasn't indicted for taking us to war on false pretenses, was he? So what's all the excitement about? Perjury is nothing. To them, obviously, perjury is nothing, which is why they do it. Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has a different opinion. So does civil rights lawyer Elaine Cassel, who says the lies of people in power matter to every one of us. (30 October 2005)

Spectator: The View from Here. Why didn't Brian Higgins have the honesty tell us he was a wannabe-Republican when he ran on the Democratic line last year? Why is Colin Powell not a good soldier after all? Which self-serving lie is so off the charts that former FBI director Louis Freeh has to drop his eyes when he tries to pass it off as fact? (30 October 2005) 

Leona Czolgosz: What We Should Be Asking Byron Brown. "We focus on a Mayor’s contest that isn’t a contest, instead of focusing on what’s next—who he will bring with him to help him run the city. The Buffalo News has been acting for the past two months like there is doubt about the next Mayor of Buffalo. There hasn’t been any doubt for more than a year. Byron Brown would have to be caught with the proverbial dead girl or live boy to lose the Mayor’s race." (27 October 2005)

Spectator: The View from Here.  How did we wind up with the likes of Judy Miller and Tim Russert and Katie Couric? How much stealing can a big corporation get away with before the Feds say "ouch"? How much screwing will American workers take before they say "enough"? (27 October 2005)

Bruce Jackson: It's time for intelligent design at the Peace Bridge. The binational design jury just recommended keeping the 1927 bridge and building a new bridge by its side. Some signature bridge advocates are all in a tizzy, claiming betrayal and fearing reversion to the lousy steel twin span design advocated by the Buffalo Niagara Partnership, the Buffalo News and the Bridge Authority eight years ago. Relax: it's not gonna happen. (Peace Bridge Chronicles #89)  (8 October 2005)

Chris Jacobs, Mary Bartley, Bruce Jackson, Rev. Dr. G. Stanford Bratton: Why a gambling joint in the heart of Buffalo is a lousy idea and an illegal deal. Four Buffalo activists tell the Common Council's Community Development Subcommittee why the Buffalo News was dead wrong when it editorialized that a downtown casino is a done deal and Buffalonians should just make the best of it. (29 September 2005)

Diane Christian: The Politics of Death: Abortion. There's a very good reason for lawmakers to stop playing religious politics with women's wombs, and the Framers understood it perfectly well: "The separation of church and state is not only Constitutional. It’s a prophylactic against religious extremism." (14 September 2005)

Bruce Jackson: Buffalo News to Buffalo: Screw you, one more time. Why is the Buffalo News telling us to roll over and accept a downtown casino it admits will do the city harm? Why isn't it saying 'We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it any more?' Why isn't doing its job? Or, Who's job is it really doing? (Peace Bridge Chronicles #89) (13 September 2005)

How to vote in the September 13 Buffalo Democratic primary. A Buffalo Report editorial. (10 September 2005)

Bruce Jackson: Images of Death. This article about the deaths we don't see but should originally ran in Buffalo Report and CounterPunch on January 5. Try reading it again, substituting "Gulf Coast" or "New Orleans" for "tsunami."(5 September 2005)

Bruce Jackson: Serving Buffalo Report. Buffalo Report's server is located in downtown New Orleans, which is why we were offline Thursday evening through Sunday evening. Several readers asked why Buffalo Report, which is edited on the Canadian border, is served up on the Gulf of Mexico. Here's why.  (4 September 2005)

Diane Christian: The Politics of Death: Assassination. Televangelist Pat Robertson, who recently called for the murder of the popular, elected president of Venezuela, is no freak, no aberration. Unlike the people running the US government these days, he just got caught with his bloody politics and unChristian-Christianity hanging out. Like the rest of them, he's got the politics and the religion wrong. (26 August 2005)

John Henry Schlegel: Like Crabs in a Barrel: Economy, History and Redevelopment in Buffalo. This is the definitive analysis of Buffalo's rise and fall. All the other explanations—corrupt and incompetent governance at the county and city level, decline of the steel industry, bypassing of the city by the NY Thruway St. Lawrence seaway, etc.—describe real conditions, but they do not, finally, explain what happened here and what is happening now. This is an important article for anyone wanting to understand the economic life and condition of this region, and the life and death of cities in general. (23 August 2005)

Spectator: The View from Here. The Bush administration is staying the course: it is unwavering in how it is screwing up the war, screwing the vets, punishing truth-tellers and enriching its friends. (23 August 2005)

Paula Rogovin: Camp Casey. While visiting Hanoi, one-time Buffalonian Paula Rogovin heard about Cindy Sheehan's vigil in Crawford, Texas. So off she went to Crawford. Here's her letter about what it was like at Camp Casey, including the bizarre moment when a local lunatic in a pickup went through and destroyed the crosses honoring the dead GIs. (22 August 2005)

George Zornick: Who (and what) is Brian Higgins? Brian Higgins got elected to Congress as a south Buffalo Democrat with liberal ideas. He seemed to represent both sides of the city. Since he got the job he's been voting like a Bush Republican. In this interview, he justifies and rationalizes his puzzling votes. (Click here for the Buffalo Beast's evaluation of Higgins' performance since he got to Washington). (15 August 2005)

Spectator: The View from Here.  BR's resident grouse takes on Rep. Tom Reynolds' assignment to the GOP manure detail, how the GOP continues to screw GIs and veterans, and WBFO's "Get Hillary" Limbaugh wannabe. (22 July 2005)

Stephen T. Banko III: How the Buffalo News' editor and Bona's journalism dean got it wrong on Judith Miller. "The confidential sources that contacted the media were not well-intentioned whistle-blowers seeking to pull back the cloak of secrecy hiding government wrongdoing. The sources were high-ranking government officials seeking to destroy the reputation, credibility and character of someone perceived to be an enemy of the White House." Miller got in on it because she had been a water carrier for the White House before. She's in jail not because she's a defender of journalistic principles but because she let herself be used by the boys in power one time too many. (19 July 2005)

Spectator: The View from Here. Spectator lets loose on Buffalo Mayor Tony Masiello, Erie County Republican chairman Bob Davis, loser politicians short on friends with front yards and (looking afield) the Neanderthal of the US Senate—Rick Santorum. (15 July 2005) 

Newton Garver: Bolivia: Roadblocks to Power.  Was the change in Bolivian leadership brought about by violent or nonviolent means? Does it make any difference? The Indians have a way to force change, but does that translate into a way to govern? (12 July 2005)

Spectator: The View from Here. Giambra loses it at his front door, Ni-Mo as public menace, Washington screws you but pays United's bills, and Spectator's dry eyes for Judith Miller. (7 July 2005)

Peyton Randolph: Erie County's Mess: Déjà vu all over again. This isn't the first time a delusional county executive and an incompetent legislature have driven Erie County's finances into the sewer. And some of the same players are once again involved. (7 July 2005)

Elaine Cassel: Why This Liberal Will Miss Sandra Day O'Connor. Republicans are savaging Justice Sandra Day O'Connor before she's started cleaning out her office. Seems she kept introducing human values in her opinions and human values, they say, have no place on the Supreme Court. Cassel, a civil rights lawyer, says why they're got it all wrong. (5 July 2005)

Elaine Cassel: Jeb Bush Still Playing Politics Over The Dead Body of Terri Schiavo. Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has elected himself Michael Schiavo's Javert: he publicly maintains his frothing pursuit of the guy even though every police agency and scientific organization that has looked into Terri's going comatose has said Michael had nothing to do with it. Bush is persistent, but he's not an idiot, so what does he hope to get out of this persecution? (5 July 2005)

Ross Runfola: O (poor) Canada. Bush's nominee for US ambassador to Canada sets a new low, even for Bush. (2 July 2005)

Buffalo Film Seminars Fall 2005 screening schedule  (30 June 2005)

Spectator: The View from Here. Screwing the public in Eerie County and Marines in Iraq. (29 June 2005)

Shannon Young: Staff of Oaxaca paper besieged. "Thirty-one press workers with Noticias, the largest newspaper in the state, have been trapped inside of their office building since the pre-dawn hours of Friday, June 17th when busloads of people set up camp in the street and blockaded the entrance and exit points. The crowd is extremely hostile and intimidating and is taking orders from a local politician who is both a representative in the state legislature and union boss with the CROC, a 'labor organization' strongly tied to the PRI party since its founding. The crowd also consists of hired thugs ('porros') and plainclothes police. Uniformed transit police, as well as the UPOE (a militarized state police force) are providing security for the shock group outside of the Noticias building. The crowd has blockaded an entire city block in downtown Oaxaca City with dump trucks filled with gravel and dirt, set up a giant tent structure (such as used at outside weddings), and brought in port-a-potties. All under the approving watch of state police forces." (27 June 2005) 

William Moses Kunstler Fund for Racial Justice: Help needed for Lynne Stewart video. The Kunstler fund is producing a video about the case of civil rights attorney Lynne Stewart, railroaded by the Ashcroft Justice Department as part of the Bush administration's anti-civil rights campaign. They need a little help from their friends. (22 June 2005)

Bruce Jackson: Santiago Calatrava's extension for the Milwaukee Art Museum. 10 photographs.  Milwaukee did something with its waterfront that never occurred to Buffalo's city fathers: they made it accessible and attractive, and now, with the new Calatrava wing on the art museum and bridge connecting the city to that part of the waterfront, they've done more of both. (12 June 2005)

Stephen T. Banko: Pat Buchanan, Chickenhawk. Buchanan has taken to the airwaves attacking Mark Felt for having told the truth. As a veteran of the Nixon White House and a long-time hypocrite on matters of war, little surprise that Buchanan would get it all wrong on this one. (3 June 2005)

Spectator: The View from Here: How do you tell the crooks from the merely incompetent? Erie County is drowning in red ink, Joel Giambra still denies responsibility for anything anytime anywhere, county legislators and officials are jumping ship, and Buffalo Common Council member Marc Coppola says something absurd. (2 June 2005) 

Leona Czolgosz: His Mackerelcy. "Politically, the County Executive and his aides—at least those who didn’t jump ship—are disgraced, dead, buried and—worst of all—a source of embarrassment. Next time he’s on television, turn off the sound and watch his face. It’s the face of a desperate, devilish, overmatched, none-too-bright adolescent. A rank amateur politician. A Rebel Without a Clue. Giambra politically is the post-Watergate Nixon. The post-Fanne-Foxe Wilbur Mills. The post-“wide-right” Scott Norwood. Deader than a mackerel." (2 June 2005)

Spectator: The View from Here. Heroes, liars, and the real failure of American journalism. (25 May 2005)

Joel Giambra and Spectator: A control board for Erie County? Erie County's finances are a mess. Buffalo Report commentator Spectator has several times in recent months faulted County Executive Joel Giambra for what Spectator sees as Giambra's misguided and failed fiscal and management policies. Two years ago, Giambra backed a fiscal control board for Buffalo, saying the city hadn't been able to manage its own finances well enough to avoid disaster. In his May 17 column, Spectator wrote, "One thing [Deputy Erie county Executive] Bruce Fisher and I can agree on in this one is that a control board is not needed for the county. The City's control board doesn't have the power to provide Buffalo with what it needs: money. Nor would a control board be able to provide the County with what it needs: a set of balls." But now Giambra has said that perhaps a fiscal control board is the only entity that can get Erie county's squabbling officials to work and play well together. Last week, Bruce Fisher sent Spectator Giambra's "Talking points on proposed Control Board for Erie County." Here are Giambra's memo and Spectator's response. (23 May 2005)

Robert Creeley: The Conspiracy. "The Conspiracy" was one of Allen Ginsberg's favorite Bob Creeley poems. Ours too. Here's the poem, plus a 1983 photo of Bob and his Gunslinger goodbuddy Ed Dorn. Onward! (21 May 2005)

CAE Defense Fund: Breaches of Civil Contracts Should be Civil Crimes, Prosecutor Argues in Steve Kurtz Case. The charges against artist Steve Kurtz should be dismissed because Kurtz didn't do anything illegal, attorney Paul Cambria told a federal judge. The prosecutor told the judge that an underaged youth who bought alcohol on the web should be tried on federal wire fraud charges. This is the kind of loopy jackboot thinking that has cost Kurtz $60,000 and taxpayers millions in a fit of legal foolishness that gives new resonance to the cliche,  "Don't make a federal case out of it." (18 May 2005)

Spectator: The View from Here. What virtues have the Christian conservatives running the US government not violated? What's the key thing a control board couldn't give Erie County government? and Do the wives of Buffalo firefighters and cops really deserve elective cosmetic surgery at taxpayers' expense? (17 May 2005)

Bruce Jackson: Joel Giambra's plan to kill Buffalo.  A plan announced this week by a Las Vegas gambling corporation to build a $350 million gambling casino in Buffalo's outer harbor permitted Erie County Executive Joel Giambra (who presided over the meltdown of Erie County's government) and Buffalo's Buffalo Mayor Anthony Masiello (who presided over the most recent phase of Buffalo's ecnomic decline) to give further evidence why neither man should ever again be entrusted with public office.Joel Rose, a leader in two of the primary organizations opposing a Buffalo casino details ways you might help combat this idiocy. (14 May 2005)

Spectator: The View from Here. Our Man on the Inside's current prime gripes, from the degree Yale shouldn't have given Dubya to incompetence in Erie County Hall to war profiteering to Rummy's dubious spenders. Spectator ain't happy. (12 May 2005)

Percy Alvarado Godoy: Target: Cabaret Tropicana. The most ambitious terrorist plan against Cuba in the 1990s. Two of the three attempts by Cuban expatriate terrorists living in Miami to blow up Cuba's Tropicana resort when it was full of tourists were foiled in large part by Percy Alvarado Godoy. George W. Bush says he is dedicated to eliminating terrorists and terrorism wherever either exists on the globe. How come he keeps managing to miss Miami in this crusade? (10 May 2005)

Bruce Jackson: The Peace Bridge is right on schedule.  Relax:it's not taking too long. The only reason it's not done already is because the Public Bridge Authority and the Buffalo Niagara Partership (formerly the Chamber of Commerce) got caught breaking New York's environmental law. Now they're obeying the law and before long we'll have a pretty bridge. And it won't be built by Detroit transportation mogul Matty Maroun, either. Peace Bridge Chronicles #88. (8 May 2005)

Peyton Randolph: The Minor Leagues. The lineup for the Buffalo mayoral election seems entirely populated by the incompetent and/or the inexperienced. Maybe the city's most famous political thug, Jimmy Griffin, can make another comeback. (7 May 2005) 

William R. Greiner: Reading the Graduation Numbers. A recent report placed UB's undergraduate graduation rate lower than several other public research universities. But the numbers in that report, says UB's former president, may not mean what they seem to say, and there is more to the issue of graduation rates than that simple tally can address. (3 May 2005)

Bruce Jackson: Bush and Cuba. The May 2004 Report to the President of the Committee for Assistance to a Free Cuba, chaired by then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, recommends various techniques for increasing US economic and political pressure on the Castro administration and making life more difficult for ordinary Cubans. The report also suggests things the US might do to help the Cuban populace once Castro is gone and the Cubans have created a government which finds approval in the White House. The report's basic notion of a "free Cuba" is a Cuba that does exactly what the White House tells it to do. (20 April 2005)

Bernadette Medige: White smoke went up over the Buffalo Board of Education too. As the Buffalo News reported, Buffalo's Board of Education has named James A. Williams, former superintendent of the Dayton, Ohio public schools, as their choice for the superintendent of the city's schools. He was selected by the board in secret session, using a bunch of extra money provided by Buffalo banker and charter school advocate Robert Wilmers. Here's what the News didn't tell about how Williams was fired in Dayton and his long and deep involvement with voucher programs, outsourcing, charter schools—all those services and organizations dedicated to undermining a public education system. (20 April 2005)

Leslie A. Fiedler: On Saul Bellow: "The age of the Jewish-American novel is over." The novelist Saul Bellow died last week and, as with the late Pope, the popular press has been full of unqualified praise for him and his work. And, as with the late Pope, things are by no means so simple as the fulsome prose would have you believe. Here's what critic Leslie A. Fiedler had to say about Bellow in a 1989 conversation with Diane Christian and Bruce Jackson. (9 April 2005)

Robert Creeley and Bruce Jackson: On the subject of Company.  (5 April 2005)

Bruce Jackson: Robert Creeley, May 21, 1926-March 30, 2005  (30 March 2005)

Newton Garver: The Anti-Political Politician. Bolivian president Carlos Mesa wasn't elected president, he has no political base, leads no political party, and refuses to use the instruments of power by which presidents everywhere maintain their authority. As a result he is the most popular and effective Bolivian president anybody can remember. His only serious opposition was a socialist party called MAS. When MAS set up roadblocks, Mesa announced he would resign the presidency rather than send in troops who might harm the Indians on the blockade, whereupon MAS said never mind and opened up the roads. A president who won't kill? How do you nominate someone for a Nobel Peace Prize? (26 March 2005) 

Bruce Jackson: How the lawyer Bill Kunstler got the judge Bruce Wright to sign a totally illegal court order for the right reasons. Did you ever wonder if two wrongs can make a right? Read this and maybe you'll find out. (26 March 2005)

Bruce L. Fisher and Spectator: "Ad hominem!" "Ad hominem my ass!" Erie County's Deputy County Executive responds to Spectator and Spectator responds to the Deputy County Executive. Zowie!! (25 March 2005)

Spectator: Giambra's meltdown, Naples' nosedive, Griffin's flight, Reynolds betrayal, Bush's theft—and the Senate screws veterans (again). Whadda week! (22 March 2004)

Bruce Jackson: Death Row, Texas, 1979. Twenty-six years ago this week Diane Christian and I went to Texas to begin work on a film and book about the special prison Texas maintained for men it hoped to put to death. While we were doing that work, I took about 1300 35mm photographs. I'm now printing them for the first time. Here are some of the images that will appear in a book called "Killable Others." (20 March 2005)

William Benzon: Salvation and Democracy, or How One's Personal Relationship with Christ Underwrites Governmental Legitimacy. Christian fundamentalists have always been part of American culture, but in former times they didn't bother (or care about) us and we didn't bother (or care about) them. All that has changed, and as a result, they are now a powerful and troubling force in American political life. (15 March 2005)

Spectator: Irony in the Titanic that is Erie County. "The long-standing myth of efficiency that has cloaked county government for decades has been blown away. Can anyone now say with a straight face that we should entrust the region's future to a county government so utterly inept that it can't even quantify its ineptitude?" Furthermore, the Buffalo News has it perfectly backwards on the consolidation issue: we shouldn't be folding the city into the county; we should be abolishing the all-but-useless county government and let the city go about its business. (15 March 2005)

Bernadette Medige: Charter Schools Initiative: Not Dead Yet, and Why Bill Gates Needs More Homework. Charter schools were supposed to galvanize ailing school districts, but in Buffalo they've just made things worse. It now looks as if Buffalo may be climbing off the charter schools bandwagon. Elsewhere: Bill Gates has been pontificating about what should be done to improve primary and secondary education. He might start with less outsourcing and more taxpaying. (8 March 2005)

Peyton Randolph: Rethinking. Since Erie County imploded a lot of people have been rethinking Joel Giamba. They should be rethinking a lot more than that—the whole structure and population of local and regional government, for starters. (4 March 2005)

Newton Garver: Idolatry. A profound meditation on the nature of idolatry and the role of seven false gods in particular: Princes, Politicians, Priests, Preachers, Police, Prisons, Pentagon. (1 March 2005)

Bruce Jackson: Charles Désirat, 1907-2005. "Charles Désirat was a man to whom terrible things had been done, yet he remained all his life full of joy, optimism, care and love. He went through hell and he lived long and he thought that life, finally, was stronger than death, and that what mattered was to keep on fighting until the inevitable end, and never to forget. Who needs more than that? Who can hope for more than that?" (1 March 2005)

William Benzon: Ghost Dancing in the USA. "Our response to the bombing of the World Trade Center does not auger well. We have set out to fight a vaguely defined enemy—terrorism—of unbounded scope and magnitude while doing little of substance to address the vulnerability of our airlines, our borders, and our ports. These actions and inactions—and a host more—are those of an administration that is Ghost Dancing into the future with its eyes fixed firmly on the past, and a largely imaginary past at that. It is possible that, in the manner of an alcoholic who must “hit bottom” before he can cure himself, this administration, and perhaps its anointed successors, will simply continue on this path until even the most vigorous Ghost Dancing looses all plausibility." (1 March 2005)

Diane Christian: Bad Blood. For a few days every month the girl next door is Bush's ultimate weapon in the war against evil. (22 February 2005)

Spectator: Dante's Hell needs two new rings. Or is there already a bolgia for journalists who cop out and Florida hypocrites?

Bruce Jackson: Buffalo report was in Paris this week. Why there were no BR postings or emails this past week, a party hosted by Chirac, and a note on two conversations about America. (18 February 2005)

Spectator: Greed and inconsistency in Amherst and fraud and stud-service at the White House (18 February 2005). It's not enough to do public service; the service you do the public should be in the public's interest, not yours. And how free is a free press if the people being reported on create the reporters and their questions? (18 February 2005)

Spectator: Why the Spectator isn't a Republican vols. XXIV and XXV, and Erie County Follies. Why does Halliburton get a performance pass available to nobody else? Why is the Bush administration willing to pay GIs to die but opposed to insurance for GIs killed on their behalf? What is Erie County Legislator Barry Weinstein talking about? Don't you get wistful for the good old days when the worst thing the press had to fret about was whether or not an Oval Office hummer was an impeachable offense? (12 February 2005)

Leona Czolgosz: The 2005 Buffalo Mayoral Questionnaire. Sam Hoyt has bailed out of the Buffalo mayoral campaign, but Byron Brown is still running like he really wants the job, the Buffalo-Niagara Partnership hasn't yet come up with an offer that will entice current Mayor Anthony Masiello to leave City Hall, and there are rumors of several kamikaze candidates skulking about, waiting for Byron Brown to actually say something about something so they can make their own move into the lists. What's a voter to do? How's a voter to choose? Loyal BR contributor Leona Czolgosz to the rescue with the Daughters of the Pan-American Exposition (DOPE) Mayoral Questionnaire. The responses, she writes, "will be reviewed by our Executive Board prior to our awarding our endorsement, to be announced at our annual tea dance at the Wilcox Mansion." BR's political section breathlessly awaits the results. (6 February 2005)

Stephen T. Banko: Blood does not sanctify blood.  The politicians say more American soldiers must die in Iraq to honor the American soldiers who have already died in Iraq. That is as much a lie now as it was when Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon said the same thing about the unnecessary dead in Vietnam three and four decades ago. The best way to honor the dead is to stop producing more of them.(4 February 2005)

Spectator: Erie County lunacy (and why Sam Hoyt bailed out). As the sales tax shenanigans, hypocrisy, posturing and other foolishness continue, Erie County politicians accomplish the previously unimaginable: they make Buffalo city government look almost competent. And Buffalo second-place Buffalo mayoral candidate Sam Hoyt bails out, saying he wants to spend more time with his family. Ho-ho-ho. (4 February 2005)

Spectator: US mercenaries...Framing Social Security...Sam Hoyt & Nero. Our man on the inside is back from his world tour and he finds things as screwed-up as when he left. (20 January 2005)

Leona Czolgosz: Run,  Tony, Run. The Buffalo News and the Buffalo-Niagara Partnership have been trying to push Buffalo Mayor Anthony Masiello out of office, but their technique is so heavy-handed they may accomplish exactly the opposite of what they intend. Instead of sending him on his way they may very well convince him that his best option is staying right where he is. (20 January 2005)

Bruce Jackson: Sam Hoyt's funny-money. Buffalo's longest-unannounced mayor candidate Sam Hoyt issued a press release bragging about his recent fund-raising achievements. The only problem is it's meaningless. (20 January 2005)

Greater Buffalo Commission: Erie County-City of Buffalo Merger. The full text of the proposed referendum. (19 January 2005)

Bruce Jackson: Buying Buffalo's Mayor. A page-one story in the Buffalo News, based entirely on unattributed sources, seems more job offer to Buffalo Mayor Anthony Masiello than news story about the upcoming mayoral campaign. Is the Buffalo News reporting the news or trying to make the news it wants come about? (18 January 2005)

 












 

 

 

 


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